ASUS Eee PC 701 PC Notebook

I believe that with Eee PC, ASUS brought a revolution in Computing. There were a big segment of the market consisting of Users like me that would like to have and use a computer on the move, but found usual Notebook Computers just too damn big (try to open between you and the steering wheel a 17", 3.5Kg Notebook) and PocketPC or Palm not functional enough.
There were foe quite some time other sub-notebooks in the market ranging from 7 to 12" screens, but with prices 4 or 5 times this of ASUS eee PC 701 you just can't compare them.
I liked in the machine the easyness to perform the most common tasks through the included linux OS. As an old Microsoft Windows user I liked even more the easiness to install the Windows XP OS and the including suggestions to reduce the size it takes in the Solid State Disk.
I like the fast boot up time and I like the very steady behaviour when running various applications. I like the very sensitive Wifi that picksuo right away all the available networks and connects without problems. I also like the three USB ports that provide enough expendability to the machine. I like the very clear and easy to read screen.
There are also some things that I didn't like so much.
1) I didn't like this whole business with the "void if broken" warning in the memory port. The good thing is that ASUS finally has issued a statement saying that waranty won't get void for users that just expand their memory. With the huge drop in memory prices I have already installed 2GB of Ram (instead of 512) for just 48 Euro.
2) I don't like the 4GB size of the Solid state disk. After working for a month now with the machine I realise that it is just not enough even for simple tasks. Especially with XP, the OS and Office will eliminate all the available space. I believe that at least 8GB inital size is a must. I can't even imagine how users of the lower end Eee with 2GB disk will cope.
3) The last important problem that ASUS eee faces in the instability with the use of SDHC cards and the included disk reader. If they worked fine they would be a good alternative to the small solid state disk as you can find 8GB or 16GB SDHC cards at good prices running fairly fast if they are of class 6 or above. Unfortunatelly although ASUS states that these cards are supported most of them and especilally the high capacity ones usually don't work properly on the ASUS eee. That means that you are either getting write/read errors, or after some time you can't open an application that it is installed in such a card (without any error messages) or that data are loading very slowly and many other problems. Most of the people at forums believe that this problem may be fixed in a future Bios update, although from ASUS there is no final feedback. The only solution today to the problem is to read/write the card through an external USB2 card reader where everything seems to work just fine. Unfortunatellity this somewhat sacrifices some of ASUS Eee mobility as the USB reader has to stack out of the side of the computer.
Hope this short review will be usefull to some...


Question 1
Dear stelio70,
just read your review of eepc, what type of ram do i require to increase the memory
thank you
ian

Reply1
Any DDR2 SO-DIMM 667 will do. I bought Transcend 2GB JM667QSU-2G and it works flawlessly. Keep in mind that you don't actually "add" Ram but rather you replace the existing module with one of greater capacity.